Electronic blinking novelty items have been available for a number of years to suit many applications such as decorations, advertising signs and other attention-getting devices. Such electronic blinking novelty items have used both digital and analog oscillating circuitry. However, such prior novelty items have been made with little regard for the duty cycle of battery or power sources and seemingly little desire to conserve battery life. The oscillating circuitry of most prior novelty items have been inefficient and have required large batteries to obtain long lives. The oscillators used in these prior devices have employed large and costly charge-pump type capacitors to provide a supplemental current pulse source and a pulse-timing component and have frequently required a separate switch component to operate the circuit.
Among the prior patents disclosing such prior oscillating circuits are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,805,047; 3,866,035; 3,918,184; 4,076,978; 2,815,388; 4,459,645; 4,556,932; 4,634,148; and 4,719,544.